Quit Playin' Games With My Body
by Miranda Shadowind
Summary: Hard Drive's using a new VR program to make arcadegoing katizens do his evil bidding, including Chance. Now it's up to Razor and Demona to stop him, but the latter has her own problems...


Quit Playin' Games With My Body  
Miranda Shadowind  
  
Bladea walked down the Megakat Museum of History steps with a big grin on her face. She waved to Dr. Sinian as she got into Chance's car. "YES!" she whooped.  
  
Chance smirked. "I take it your job interview went good?"  
  
"Good?! It went GREAT! I got the job! Whoohoo!" Bladea replied, and they high-fived.  
  
"All right! C'mon, let's go home, tell Jake the great news and celebrate!"  
  
"Oh yeah!"  
  
They drove off, then slowed down all of the sudden as they went through Chance's old neighborhood.  
  
"Hey why're we stopping?" asked Bladea, looking around  
  
"Check out that weird arcade over there! I grew up in this area but I don't remember it at all!" Both got out and headed in to check things out."Hmm..." He went over to a Space Kat station, put in a quarter, and started playing while Bladea watched.  
  
Several quarters later, an aggrivated Bladea had to pry an addicted Chance away from the machine as soon as he got game over. "C'mon! You can play it at home for FREE for Hod's sake!"  
  
Chance grumbled as he got dragged out to/into the car and drove off toward the garage. "Must... play game... beat score.."  
  
"Ugh..." Bladea moaned, shaking her head. She made a mental note to hide the Space Kat game in the hangar when they got back. "You've had more than enough for today Chance.."  
  
Back at the garage, Bladea ran in half happy half driven mad. "Wheee!!"  
  
Jake grinned and hugged her. "You got the job?"  
  
"Oh yeah! It was a snap!" she hugged him back.  
  
"'Deeeaaa..." Jake teased shaking a finger.  
  
"No, not THAT kind of snap! Heheheheh"  
  
Just then zombified Chance lumbered in still mumbling. "What's with him?" Jake asked.  
  
"He's had WAY too much game time at that new arcade downtown... We stopped there on the way back from the museum, that's why we were late coming home. Just lock up our copy of Space Kat for a while and he should be fine unless he goes looking for it" Bladea whispered the last part, unsure of when Chance might come to his senses.  
  
Jake nodded and shrugged, snickering.  
  
"Must play game...must-" muttered Chance until Jake cut him off.  
  
"Forget the game, Chance! It's time to celebrate!"  
  
But little did Bladea OR Jake realize that Chance's condition was much worse than the average video game addiction. For inside the arcade, hidden from public view, HardDrive was sitting at a large control board watching the game players via survelliance cameras.  
  
"That's right my little friends keep playing 'til your money runs out! It's not that that I want as much as what you'll bring me while under my power! Mwahahahahah!" laughed HardDrive, rubbing his hands together. An evil grin spread across his pupil-less face.  
  
A few days later, Bladea stood at the bottom of the museum steps and waited for Chance to pick her up. And waited. And waited some more. Finally after 20 minutes had passed with no sign of him or a call on the communicator, she marched back into the museum and into Abi's office.  
  
"What's wrong, Bladea? Shouldn't you be home by now?" Abi asked.  
  
"Yes, but my ride's later than usual for some reason...I need to borrow your phone and call my other roommate to come pick me up," Bladea replied, foofing her brown bangs out of her eyes.  
  
"All right, sure." Abi said with a nod. With that, Bladea picked up the reciever and dialed the garage.  
  
"Hello? Jake and Chance's Garage, Jake speaking," Jake said over the phone.  
  
"Hello Jake? It's me 'Dea. Has Chance left the garage yet?"  
  
"You mean he's not with you? Where are you calling from?"  
  
"No he's not. I'm calling from Abi's office in the museum because he hasn't picked me up yet! I waited 20 minutes and he never showed up!"  
  
"That's weird, he left the garage half an hour ago!"  
  
"You're kidding, right?"  
  
"Not at all!"  
  
"Odd...Well now I need you to come pick me up. I'm worried..."  
  
"Right. I'll be over in a few minutes. See you then!"  
  
"See ya Jake." Bladea then hung up and looked out the window, waiting. "At least HE'S acting normal...Hmm..."  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Abi.  
  
"Ever since the other day when Chance and I went to that arcade by his old neighborhood, he's been acting like a zombie." Bladea shook her head. "Worst case of video game addiction I've ever seen..." Technically it was the only case she'd seen, but that was beside the point.  
  
"Strange...I've heard about a few similar cases lately myself..."  
  
Bladea nodded as a beeping horn was heard outside, where Jake waited in the tow truck. "There's my ride! See you tomorrow Abi!" She waved and ran outside towards the truck.  
  
To say that the ride back to the garage was eventful would be an understatement. Traffic was backed up in several spots due to katizens running back and forth across the street, various stolen goods in their paws. But in their current position, neither Bladea nor Jake could see what was going on.  
  
"What the hell's the hold-up here?!" Bladea yelled.  
  
Jake shrugged and stuck his head out the tow truck window. He could just barely see the chaos up ahead. "Holy kats!"  
  
"What is it Jake?"  
  
"There's a bunch of katizens running around acting like Chance has been, only they're robbing Megakat City blind!"  
  
Bladea nodded. "Or are they..? Oh my God... Chance!"  
  
Both watched, horrified, as what seemed to be Chance darted across the street in front of the car before the tow truck. The car couldn't stop in time, but passed right through him anyway! Jake's, Bladea's, and the kats in the other car's jaws all dropped down to the floor. The money bags in Chance's paws were real, but he was... not?  
  
By now the traffic had cleared. "C'mon, we gotta find out where he--er, it--uh, whatever that was is going!" cried Bladea, confused at what they'd just witnessed.  
  
"Right! I'd say this is a job for the SWAT Kats!"  
  
Jake floored the gas pedal and sped after the Chance apparition, which hadn't been phased by the car passing through it. It joined several other kat apparitions outside a side entrance to the now-closed arcade. Jake parked the truck across the street and both kats got out.  
  
"Should've figured it would come down to this..." Bladea mumbled as she and Jake ducked into an alley and transformed into their G-Suits the quick way (Bladea's magic). Demona and Razor then came out and snuck across the street to investigate. The former had a brief spasm, but reassured Razor that she was fine.  
  
Inside, HardDrive was singing "I'm in the Money!" as he watched the apparitions enter and leave a large green room filled with wires. On one side were the stolen items. On the other, the real Chance and other arcade-goers were stumbling around wearing strange-looking VR helmets.  
  
None of them noticed when a few well-placed missiles brought down a small section of the wall. Razor and Demona dashed inside, dumbfounded at what they saw. HardDrive on the other paw, DID notice.  
  
"So, you SWAT Kats think you can stop me, do you?!" HardDrive yelled through his headset. He was visible via a glass window overlooking the VR room.  
  
"HardDrive! It would figure that a technomaniac like you would stoop this low!" Razor snapped.  
  
"Not as low as you'll be in a minute! 6 feet under to be exact! Attack my minions!"  
  
The two remaining SWAT Kats laughed, figuring the virtual apparitions that came at them would pass right through. But their solidity was apparently adjustable, because the duo soon found themselves struggling to get free. HardDrive arced down into the room and gloated.  
  
Just then, Demona had another spasm, and her eyes flickered to yellow for a second. "Uggh... wild... dragon... can't.. control..."  
  
"What is going on here?!" HardDrive demanded. Razor was just thinking the same thing as he glanced worriedly at his partner.  
  
"Rggh.. nooo... GYAH!" Black and blue smoke rose out of nowhere, and Demona and her captor disappeared from view. A loud dragon's screech was heard, as well as two feline yells, one male, one female.  
  
When the smoke cleared, Demona had mutated, and now had scaley patches here and there. A pair of yellow eyes shone through the white eyecovers of her mask. Her captor lay on the floor, slashed.  
  
"D-demona? You ok?" Razor asked, gaping.  
  
Demona opened her mouth to speak, but a new voice came out instead of her own. "The one you call Demona is not here. I am Andromeda Derukani, a dragon imprisoned in her body by the PastMaster for over 100 years. But now, I am finally going to be free!"  
  
Demona/Andromeda's eyes flickered, and the yellow glow disappeared. "Not if I have anything to say about it!" Demona's voice yelled out, pissed. She held her head, trying to maintain dominance over her newly-freed split personality.   
  
After a few minutes, Demona drew her sword to attack Hard Drive, but he pointed a sparking finger at Razor. "Not so fast! You come any closer and your little friend is toast Dragon Breath!" he snapped.  
  
Demona considered her options, looking around the room. She grinned when she spotted something overhead. "That's what you think Hacker Boy! Eat water!"  
  
With that, Demona stopped concentrating a little. Not too much, but enough for her to use Andromeda's fire, which she aimed at the ceiling.  
  
"Demona, what the hell are you..." Razor watched as the flames set off the sprinkler system, shorting out Hard Drive and his VR system. The apparitions disappeared, and the arcade-going kats slowly came to, prying off their helmets.  
  
Chance scratched his head and looked around. Spotting his comrads, he ran over. "What happened? I feel like I got hit by a truck!"  
  
Demona looked at Razor, who smirked slightly. "Hard Drive had you plugged into some VR program of his, but it's over now..."  
  
Chance nodded, then got a better look at mutated Demona. "What happened to you?"  
  
"The PastMaster happened... A few years before my 200th birthday, ol' Gnome Boy merged me and Dad with a dragon each, and mine just broke loose now..." Demona groaned softly, sniffling.  
  
"Dad's broke loose a year after the merging, and it drove him insane... He tried to commit katicide by stabbing himself and falling out of his chamber window. It didn't work... His immortality kept him alive, and believe me, being a mortally wounded immortal is no picnic at all... Mom did the only thing she could and put him out of his misery by revoking his immortality..." Demona broke into tears, and Razor gave her a hug. She hugged him back. "Thanks..."  
  
Demona suddenly broke off and backed up, sensing something. She clutched her chest and gasped for breath just before disappearing in black and blue smoke again. When it cleared, she was back to normal, for now.  
  
"C'mon, we'd better get out of here before Feral comes," said Chance. With that, the trio exited through the hole in the wall into the alley beyond. 


End file.
